Fadi Azzam
Fadi Azzam فادي عزام
Fadi Azzam is a Syrian writer, born in Sweida, southern Syria, in 1973. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts in Damascus in 1998 and has written for Arabic newspapers, as well as published a number of stories in Arabic magazines. Between 2007 and 2009, he was a culture and arts correspondent for Al Quds al-Arabi newspaper.
Translated Titles by Fadi Azzam
Sarmada, Arabic for perpetuate or the eternally-not-changed, is the novels fictitious setting. In the title, Fadi Azzam creates a new word (a derivative female form of noun-verb, which does not exist in Arabic) and in so doing immediately lets the reader know that women are the protagonists of this story that spans several generations, from Syria to Paris and back again. The novel is set in the Druze area and is a declaration of love for tolerance and for the peaceful coexistence of the many religious groups that live in close proximity. Myths, communists, nationalists, murder, illicit love, superstition, erotic trees, and women’s breasts make up the tapestry of this strange, beautifully written novel. Sarmada is direct, ruthless and full of fire.
Samar Yazbek
Samar Yazbek سمر يزبك
Samar Yazbek is a Syrian writer and journalist, born in Jableh in 1970. She is the author of several works of fiction, including Cinnamon. An outspoken critic of the Assad regime, but also of what she identifies as erroneous perceptions of ideological conformity within the Syrian Alawite community, Yazbek has been deeply involved in the Syrian uprising since it broke out on 15 March 2011. Fearing for the life of her daughter she was forced to flee her country and now lives in hiding. Yazbek was awarded the Pen/Pinter International Writer of Courage Award 2012, awarded to an author of outstanding literary merit who casts an ‘unflinching’ eye on the world.
Translated Titles by Samar Yazbek
After a bitter betrayal, Aliyah is banished from her mistress’ villa at dawn and sent back to the dusty alleyways of her childhood. Exhausted, both maid and mistress seek refuge in sleep and dream of their troubled childhoods, loneliness, love, and their lives together. A darkly humorous tale, Cinnamon portrays the inner world of two Damascene women and their search for security and tenderness from two opposing ends of the social scale.
A well-known novelist and journalist from the coastal city of Jableh, Samar Yazbek witnessed the beginning four months of the uprising first-hand and actively participated in a variety of public actions and budding social movements. Throughout this period she kept a diary of personal reflections on, and observations of, this historic time. Because of the outspoken views she published in print and online, Yazbek quickly attracted the attention and fury of the regime, and vicious rumors started to spread about her disloyalty to the homeland and the Alawite community to which she belongs. The lyrical narrative describes her struggle to protect herself and her young daughter, even as her activism propels her into a horrifying labyrinth of insecurity after she is forced into living on the run and detained multiple times, excluded from the Alawite community and renounced by her family, her hometown and even her childhood friends. With rare empathy and journalistic prowess, Samar Yazbek compiled oral testimonies from ordinary Syrians all over the country. Filled with snapshots of exhilarating hope and horrifying atrocities, she offers us a wholly unique perspective on the Syrian uprising. Hers is a modest yet powerful testament to the strength and commitment of countless unnamed Syrians who have united to fight for their freedom. These diaries will inspire all those who read them, and challenge the world to look anew at the trials and tribulations of the Syrian uprising.